The Big Grift Behind the Big Lie
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This episode explores two stories of fights over the right to vote.\\xa0
\\n\\nTexas-based nonprofit True the Vote claims to have evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election\\u2014an idea Trump loudly echoes as part of \\u201cthe big lie.\\u201d But True the Vote has never shown any proof. The lack of evidence hasn\\u2019t stopped the group from netting millions of dollars in donations. As reporter Cassandra Jaramillo explains, True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht and board member Gregg Phillips took home hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal loans and payments to companies they\\u2019re associated with. Despite this grift, True the Vote\\u2019s influence is still expanding. The group provided \\u201cresearch\\u201d for a new film called 2000 Mules that promises to expose widespread voter fraud\\u2014with no evidence to back it up.\\xa0
\\n\\nThe big lie sparked the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, an event that is now part of the nation\\u2019s election history. But this was not the first time that a violent mob tried to challenge election results. In 1898, a group of armed white supremacists carried out a coup in Wilmington, North Carolina, and seized power from legally elected Black leaders. The Wilmington coup created a blueprint for taking voting rights away from people of color\\u2014a legacy of voter suppression that the country is still grappling with today. Host Al Letson pieces together the story with help from the grandson of a prominent member of the Black community in Wilmington.\\xa0
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